I Like Good Books and I Cannot Lie

“She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.”

The above quote is from The English Patient, but I’m convinced Michael Ondaatje wrote it about me.

This is, perhaps, the most important thing you should know about me: I love words. I always have. As soon as I grasped language and reading, as soon as I understood the enchantment of books, I was lost to them. I read voraciously as soon as I was able: Dr. Seuss books (all of which Bug now has in his room. Vintage!), Shel Silverstein, Lois Lowry and C.S. Lewis and the list goes on and on and on. I loved diving into different worlds. How cool was it that one minute I was me, a super-cool kid with kickin’ style, and then the next I was a girl in search of dragons? That is the absolute magic of books: that through the power of words and imagination, you can be whoever you want to be.

To this day, you’re more likely to find me with my nose in a book (or a Kindle, despite my fervent belief that it takes away from the purity of reading. Where’s the book smell?!) than glued to the television. Being in a library or book store borders on a religious experience for me. Growing up, I spent many a weekend curled up in the corner of either. Ain’t no party like a library party, ’cause a library party won’t STOP.

You’re probably starting to understand just how cool I am. But that’s what being surrounded by books does to me. I’m taken in by the smell of bound paper, by row after row after row of books, all of them teeming with their own lives, with unique worlds that are just waiting to be discovered.

All the books hanging out at the famous City Lights Bookstore. This place is magic.

THE SHELVES ARE ALIIIIIVE, WITH THE SOUND OF WOOOORLDS (I tried).

The community bulletin board, where people shout out their favorite poets. I loved this one.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been caught up in the voracious kind of reading that I used to do pre-Bug. The kind where I’m sneaking off during my lunch break and hiding in bathrooms just so I can get through a few more pages. The kind where I’m staying up late just to finish this page – well, the chapter’s almost over, can’t stop, won’t stop – oh, this is an odd-numbered page and I hate odd numbers, gotta keep going – wait, how is it MIDNIGHT? That kind of reading. The swept-up-into-a-world kind of reading. The BEST kind of reading.

Meri, Brooke, Bec and I have been texting constantly on this subject lately. And the bonus to all of this reading? It inspires my writing. It gets me daydreaming while I’m running, which is an awesome distraction on those brutal hills (there, now this isn’t completely off topic).

I might not be naughty by nature, but I’m a sharer by nature, so for all of you fellow bookworms, these are the books I gobbled up recently. Note: I have book boyfriends in each of these.

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

This is the second book in the series – the first is Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Let me tell you: this is one of the most gorgeously written, inspired and creatively told series I’ve ever read. The world Laini Taylor built, the sheer magic of it, is just beyond. I’m not usually into fantasy, but this is the stuff right here. It transcends genre preferences due to sheer perfection.

Book boyfriend: Akiva

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

The third and final book in the Smoke & Bone series. My heart! Seriously, READ THIS SERIES. And then let’s talk about it.

Book boyfriend: Akiva (again and forever)

We Were Liars by e. lockhart

This was a recommendation from Brooke. I blazed through this one in a few hours. It reads effortlessly and is super brilliantly written. I can’t say too much about it without giving things away, but read it. Read it. Read it.

Book boyfriend: Gat

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

This is the first in a three-part series and, again, sort of in the fantasy realm. Also again, a very engrossing and beautifully written start to the series. The second book, called The Dream Thieves (book boyfriend: Ronan), is also top-notch.

Book boyfriend: Gansey

Lola & The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (a re-read)

It’s set in San Francisco, so I had no choice but to like it. The reasons for loving this book were A) Cricket Bell (book boyfriend) and B) Lola’s dads, whom Stephanie Perkins wrote as beautifully well-rounded people rather than a rubber-band ball of stereotypes.

There were some fluffy romance novels mixed in there, too, but these have been the ones to stick with me recently.

And now I’m left yearning for more words to gobble.

So! Recommendations for what to read next (I promise I read books that aren’t young adult, too)? Have you read any of these books and want to discuss? My part of the discussion will probably involves ALL CAPS. Let’s talk in the comments!

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2 thoughts on “I Like Good Books and I Cannot Lie”

I’m happy you have found time to read so much! It hard to find time, even when one does have a bug to snuggle. I read Smoke and Bone and Days of Starlight and I didn’t finish Starlight. I was bored and felt it was too slow. I didn’t think there was enough reality in her fantasy to make it believable.
Sadly, I have no recs for you. I just started HP, but I have a feeling you’ve read them all. 😉 I’d say read Gone With the Wind, but you knew that would be my rec! Xoxo